SOUTH DEERFIELD — The South County Senior Center director doesn’t support a recently proposed senior housing condominium project near Mount Sugarloaf, if it isn’t affordable to local residents.
The 72-apartment, 22-acre project was proposed preliminarily by developer Mark Wightman during a recent town Planning Board meeting.
Senior Center Director Marlene Johnson said that while many local seniors have expressed a desire to see a senior community development in town, it needs to be affordable.
At the center on North Main Street Friday afternoon, Fran York, longtime resident of the town, supported Johnson’s view, saying she thinks they condos will be too expensive for the majority of the town’s seniors to afford.
“I would say that most of the units would be sold to seniors outside of town,” York continued. “That’s not really helping seniors in town.”
According to the developer, the senior housing proposal “certainly isn’t going to be under the terms of low-income or affordable housing the state requires.”
Johnson, who wasn’t at the Planning Board meeting, said she didn’t attend because she hasn’t supported an unsubsidized development from the start.
“Instead of non-subsidized housing that doesn’t benefit town seniors,” Johnson continued, “they need affordable, federally funded, sliding scale housing, and a new senior center attached.”
Town records value the land, which is split into four parcels, around $800,000.
Wightman’s proposal drew heated controversy during and after the meeting from residents both for and against the project.
Those in favor of the development felt it would bring much-needed cash flow into the town through taxes. Those against it brought up safety and flooding concerns.
The Planning Board will inspect the property Sept. 26, before another meeting Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. in the town office.
You can reach Andy Castillo
at: acastillo@recorder.com
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On Twitter: @AndyCCastillo